2 GERARD E. LYNCH, District Judge: Plaintiff Marc S. Kirschner, in his capacity as Trustee of the Refco Private Actions Trust ( Trustee or Private Actions Trustee ), originally filed this action in New York State Supreme Court on behalf of Refco s foreign-exchange customers (the FX customers ), asserting claims under New York state law against certain Refco insiders, professionals, and advisors for, inter alia, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and conversion. (Compl ) Certain defendants subsequently removed the action to this Court on the ground that the case is related to Refco s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, 28 U.S.C. 1334(b). See Kirschner v. Bennett, No. 07 Civ. 8165, 2008 WL (S.D.N.Y. May 7, 2008) (denying the Trustee s motion to remand or abstain). The Trustee alleges that the FX customers collectively suffered losses totaling more than half a billion dollars when insiders at Refco diverted assets from their accounts at Refco Capital Markets ( RCM ) in order to bankroll the Refco fraud. This opinion addresses four motions to dismiss pursuant to Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) filed by Grant Thornton LLP, Ernst & Young LLP ( EY ), Mayer Brown LLP, and Mayer Brown International LLP (collectively, the 1 Professional Defendants ). The motions will be granted. 1 The remaining defendants Phillip R. Bennett ( Bennett ) and Santo Maggio ( Maggio ) answered the Trustee s Complaint, and by stipulation the Trustee has agreed to stay this action against defendant Robert C. Trosten ( Trosten ), pending Mr. Trosten s sentencing hearing. 2

3 BACKGROUND 2 I. The Refco Fraud 3 Prior to its collapse in the fall of 2005, Refco presented itself to the public as a leading independent provider of execution and clearing services for exchange-traded derivatives and a major provider of brokerage services in the fixed income and foreign exchange ( FX ) markets. 4 (Compl. 4. ) Beginning in the late 1990s, Refco s controlling officer-shareholders Phillip R. 5 Bennett, Robert C. Trosten, and Santo C. Maggio (collectively, the insiders ) with the aid of certain professionals and financial advisors, orchestrated a complex fraudulent scheme to 2 The factual allegations concerning the fraud at Refco are substantially similar to those alleged by the Trustee in his alternative capacity as Trustee for the Refco Litigation Trust. The Court s discussion of these facts is thus substantially similar to that of Kirschner v. Grant Thornton, No. 07 Civ , 2009 WL (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 14, 2009), although the instant discussion relies on the complaint filed in this action. 3 The term Refco, as used throughout this opinion, refers to both Refco Inc., the publicly traded company formed pursuant to the August 2005 initial public offering ( IPO ), and Refco Group Ltd. ( RGL ), which functioned as Refco s parent company prior to the IPO, as well as to RGL s direct and indirect subsidiaries. 4 All references to the complaint are to the complaint originally filed in New York State Supreme Court. (See Juman Decl. Ex. A.) All factual allegations in the complaint are assumed to be true for purposes of this motion. See Merritt v. Shuttle, Inc., 245 F.3d 182, 186 (2d Cir. 2001); see also Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S.,, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1950 (2009) ( When there are well-pleaded factual allegations, a court should assume their veracity and then determine whether they plausibly give rise to an entitlement to relief. ) 5 These insiders held the top management positions at RGL, RCM and Refco Inc. (Compl ) Beginning in September 1998, Bennett was President, CEO, and Chairman of RGL and served as a director and officer of RCM. (Compl. 10.) Maggio was the Executive Vice President of RGL, and President and a director of RCM. (Compl. 11.) In that capacity, he ran the brokerage operations of Refco Securities, LLC ( RSL ) and RCM, and directly participated in, and orchestrated and supervised, the theft of [FX customer] assets. (Id.) Trosten was a member of Refco s corporate finance team from 1997 to 2001 and RGL s chief financial officer from 2001 through October (Compl. 12) All three men since have been convicted of, or pleaded guilty to, criminal charges involving their conduct at Refco. 3

4 artificially enhance Refco s performance and conceal Refco s true financial condition, so that these insiders, through the company s August 2004 leveraged buy-out ( LBO ) and August 2005 initial public offering ( IPO ), could cash out their interests in Refco on lucrative terms. (Compl. 2-3, 10-12, 26.) That scheme, which has been thoroughly discussed in this Court s 6 prior opinions, involved both concealment of Refco s uncollectible debt and the misappropriation of customer assets. The concealment of Refco s uncollectible debt involved a two-part process. First, hundreds of millions of dollars in uncollectible trading losses and other operating expenses were converted into apparently legitimate receivables owed to Refco by RGHI, a related-party holding company, or alter-ego owned by Bennett and another Refco principal, Tone Grant. (Compl , ) Although RGHI would never be in a position to repay this debt because RGHI s primary asset was its ownership of Refco stock the value of which hinged on the insiders ability to conceal the very losses they were shifting off of Refco s books to RGHI the transfers had the intended effect of fraudulently increasing Refco s reported profits and concealing Refco s outstanding debt, the revelation of which would have devastated customer confidence and severely damaged Refco s business. (Compl ) This facade was further improved by various fictitious transfers between Refco and RGHI, including those in which Refco charged 6 See In re Refco, Inc. Sec. Litig., 503 F. Supp. 2d 611, (S.D.N.Y. 2007) (describing the so-called round-trip loans that concealed Refco s massive uncollectible receivables); Thomas H. Lee Equity Fund V, L.P. v. Grant Thornton LLP, 568 F. Supp. 2d 119, (S.D.N.Y. 2008) (same), In re Refco Capital Markets, Ltd. Brokerage Customer Sec. Litig. ( RCM I ), No. 06 Civ. 643, 2007 WL , at *4 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 13, 2007) (describing how RCM allegedly diverted customer assets and improperly used the proceeds to fund the business operations of Refco affiliates). 4

5 RGHI as much as 35 percent interest on the sham receivables interest that Refco never, in fact, collected. (Compl ) Next, the insiders disappeared the receivables parked at RGHI through a series of socalled round-trip loans. This additional maneuver was necessary because the disclosure of large related-party receivables would have raised red flags among investors and regulators. (Compl. 50.) These loans, which straddled the end of each fiscal year starting in 1998 and, after the LBO, at the end of several fiscal quarters as well, all worked in essentially the same way. (Compl ) Several days before Refco closed its books for each financial period, a Refco entity usually RCM would lend hundreds of millions of dollars to a third-party customer who then, through the customer s account at Refco, simultaneously lent the same amount to RGHI. (Compl. 52.) The loan agreements between the third party and the lending entity which were done on a book basis (the principal never changed hands) were meticulously structured so that they were essentially risk-free to the third-party customers: the customers loans to RGHI were guaranteed by Refco and the customers profited for their participation in the loans through interest earned on their loans to RGHI, which by design exceeded the interest they were 7 charged by RCM. (Compl. 53.) RGHI, in turn, used the loans from the customers to pay down the money it owed to Refco for its uncollectible receivables. (Compl. 49.) The net effect of these transactions was that at the close of each reporting period, Refco s books would show apparently legitimate loans to third-party customers, and the RGHI receivables would be gone. (Id.) Then, just days after the financial period closed, the 7 Although the third parties purportedly earned interest from RGHI, it was RCM that paid the difference in interest. (Compl. 53.) In effect, RCM paid the interest on a loan extended by a third-party customer to a purportedly separate entity, RGHI. (Id.) This payment was the only occasion on which funds actually changed hands in these round-trip transactions. (Id.) 5

6 transactions were unwound the loans were repaid, and the uncollectible receivables from RGHI were returned to Refco s books. (Compl. 53.) Through these transactions, Refco lent money to itself, through third parties, to conceal its trading losses, its true operating expenses, and the fictitious nature of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. (Compl. 55.) In addition to concealing Refco s debt, the insiders routinely misappropriated customer assets held at RCM in order to prop up other Refco entities with cash infusions. (Compl , ) Some of these assets belonged to the FX customers, who maintained accounts at 8 RCM for the sole purpose of engaging in FX trading pursuant to their instructions. (Compl. 9, 20-25, 28.) The insiders, however, directed that all but a de minimis portion of the assets held in the FX customers accounts be diverted from RCM to Refco Capital LLC ( RCC ), another Refco subsidiary, under the guise of loans to customers. (Compl. 18, 68.) RCC, in turn, functioned as a disbursing agent and distributed the looted assets wherever they were needed in the Refco organization, without compensation, security, collateral, or appropriate documentation. (Compl. 19, 34, 66, ) These receiving Refco entities were not, of course, customers in any traditional sense they were intercompany, related parties nor could they repay these loans. (Compl. 32, 61, ) Nevertheless, Refco s overall financial health depended on the steady influx of illicit RCM assets (Compl. 32, 64-65), so the insiders kept careful track of these transactions and distributed among themselves daily cash flow statements that calculated the amount of customer assets available for diversion to other 8 In December 2001, Refco shut down RCM s Bermuda operations and repatriated RCM to the United States. (Compl. 18, ) Although this move should have made RCM a regulated broker-dealer, instead RCM became a ghost it was run entirely by Refco Securities, LLC ( RSL ), another Refco subsidiary, and continued to function as if it were completely unregulated. (Compl. 113, 117.) 6

7 Refco entities. (Compl. 67.) The size of these uncollateralized intercompany transfers like the size of Refco s concealed debt was substantial; the transfers involved hundreds of millions of dollars and dwarfed Refco s total capital. (Compl. 62, 64, ) At the time of the LBO, Refco affiliates owed RCM approximately two billion dollars. (Compl. 35, 62.) By falsely presenting RCM to the public as a robust entity, the insiders enabled RCM to attract a substantial volume of business from the FX customers and made the enormous quantities of cash associated with their business available to the Refco organization for improper diversion. (Compl. 32, 38, ) II. The LBO and IPO The illusion of a thriving company also allowed Refco insiders, with the aid of the Professional Defendants, to position Refco for, and ultimately to carry out, what appeared to be a legitimate buy-out of the insiders interests for far more than those interests were worth. (Compl. 71.) In 2004, Thomas H. Lee Partners ( THL ), a private equity firm, purchased by buying out the insider-owned RGHI a controlling interest in Refco as part of a leveraged buyout transaction ( LBO ). (Id.) Although the uncollaterized loans from RCM totaled almost two billion dollars a fact that would have been obvious to the Professional Defendants helping the insiders to execute the transaction Refco acquired an additional $1.4 billion of bank and bond debt through the LBO, which Refco could not possibly repay. (Compl. 71, ) That additional debt was especially problematic because, contrary to an Offering Circular that represented that the bond debt was effectively junior to all existing and future liabilities, the debt, in fact, became senior to the debt owed to RCM. (Compl. 74.) The Offering Circular fiction, however, had the intended result of lulling RCM s customers into believing that RCM s obligations to its customers would be satisfied before its obligations to the LBO creditors. (Id.) 7

8 Less than a year later, with Refco still concealing its grim financial condition and having filed a fictitious S-4 with the SEC, Refco insiders and THL led Refco through an initial public offering of its stock. (Compl ) Some of the IPO proceeds were used to retire part of RGL s LBO debt, but no proceeds were used to repay the amounts owed to RCM. (Compl. 83.) Weeks after the IPO, the RGHI receivables were revealed and RCM customers, including the FX customers, instructed RCM to return their deposits. (Compl. 5.) Refco responded by imposing a moratorium on all withdrawals from RCM customer accounts. (Compl. 65.) Days later, Refco and its subsidiaries and affiliates declared bankruptcy. (Compl ) III. Refco Private Actions Trust On December 15, 2006, approximately fourteen months after Refco filed for bankruptcy, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York confirmed the Modified Joint Chapter 11 Plan of Refco Inc. and Certain of its Direct and Indirect Subsidiaries (the Plan ). (See Kirschner Decl. 6; id. Ex. A.) The Plan provided for the establishment of a Private Actions Trust ( PAT ), which was formed to prosecute non-estate claims i.e., claims owned by Refco creditors or shareholders that were independent of those held by the 8

9 9 Refco Debtors. (Id. 12, 14.) On December 26, 2006, the PAT became effective and plaintiff Marc Kirschner was appointed as the Private Actions Trustee. (Kirschner Decl , 14.) IV. The Movants There are four separate motions to dismiss pending. This section briefly identifies the movant behind each of the motions. 9 Under the Plan, Non-Estate Refco Claims are defined as: non-estate causes of action arising from any matter involving any Refco Entity including, without limitation, causes of action against: (i) all current and former officers, directors or employees of the Refco Entities; (ii) all persons or entities that conducted transactions with the Refco Entities; and (iii) all persons or entities that provided services to the Refco Entities, including, without limitation, all attorneys, accountants, financial advisors and parties providing services to the Refco Entities in connection with the public issuance of debt or equity. (Kirschner Decl. Ex. A ) As this Court explained in In re Refco Inc. Sec. Litig.: The Plan [also] provided for the establishment of a Litigation Trust and the appointment of a Litigation Trustee to pursue such claims, rights of action, suits, or proceedings, whether in law or in equity, whether known or unknown, that any [Refco] Debtor or RCM may hold against any Person. Pursuant to the Plan, all Contributed Claims, defined as any and all Litigation Claims of the Debtors, RCM or their estates, would be irrevocably transferred to the Litigation Trust on the effective date of the Plan. In exchange, the Litigation Trust Beneficiaries, who are the holders of allowed general unsecured claims against the Refco Debtors, would receive Litigation Trust Interests, which would be allocated on the basis of the beneficiaries allowed claims under the confirmed Plan. F. Supp. 2d,, 2008 WL , at *2 (citations omitted) (alternation in original). This Court recently dismissed two actions brought by the Litigation Trustee because a bankruptcy trustee does not have standing to sue to recover for a wrong undertaken by the debtor itself. See Kirschner v. Grant Thornton LLP, No. 07 Civ , 2009 WL (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 14, 2009); Kirschner v. KPMG LLP, No. 08 Civ. 8784, 2009 WL (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 14, 2009). 9

10 A. Grant Thornton Grant Thornton LLP served as outside auditor to Refco and issued clean and unqualified audit opinions on the company s financial statements for the fiscal years 2003, 2004, and (Compl. 14, ) Grant Thornton also audited Refco subsidiaries, including RCM, on a stand-alone basis (Compl. 129), and FX customers periodically received Grant Thornton s statements for RCM (Compl. 14). Given its multiple roles, Grant Thornton was on both sides of the fence, giving it a complete picture of how Refco, and the Refco fraud, functioned. (Compl. 130.) B. Mayer Brown LLP and Mayer Brown International LLP Mayer Brown, which the Trustee claims is a combination of two limited liability 10 partnerships Mayer Brown LLP and Mayer Brown International LLP served as Refco s principal outside counsel from 1994 until October (Compl. 13, 92.) Mayer Brown provided a broad range of legal services to Refco, including drafting customer agreements, providing Refco with tax and corporate governance advice including advice on the repatriation of RCM, participating in discussions related to the LBO and IPO, and drafting the documents for the so-called round-trip loans, which concealed the RGHI receivables. (Compl. 92, 94, 96, 10 The Trustee argues that Mayer Brown LLP and Mayer Brown International LLP held themselves out as a single entity that constitutes a legal partnership or combination under New York law. (Pl. Opp. at 70.) Because the Trustee makes no allegations that Mayer Brown International LLP, if found by the Court to be a separate entity, engaged in any wrongdoing, the Court treats Mayer Brown as a single entity for the purposes of this motion. As to whether there is a sufficient basis to conclude that the two Mayer Brown entities are a de facto partnership, the Trustee has alleged enough to be entitled to conduct focused discovery on this issue. Accordingly, Mayer Brown International LLP s motion to dismiss is denied, without prejudice to a motion for summary judgment after the Trustee conducts discovery on the issue of the precise relationship between Mayer Brown LLP and Mayer Brown International LLP. In all other respects, Mayer Brown International s motion to dismiss is considered in tandem with that of Mayer Brown LLP. 10

11 99.) Through these and similar activities, Mayer Brown actively participated in carrying out Refco s fraudulent misstatement of its financial position. C. Ernst & Young From 1991 through at least 2005, Ernst & Young ( EY ) provided tax-related services to various Refco entities, including RGHI. (Compl. 15.) During that time, EY prepared tax returns and provided tax consulting and advice with respect to numerous Refco transactions, including corporate restructurings among the various Refco entities, proposed sales and acquisitions by Refco, and potential third-party investments involving Refco. (Compl. 180.) As a result of this involvement, EY was aware both that the RGHI receivables were not bona fide debts but a sham designed to improve RGL s financials (Compl ), and that Refco clean[ed] up its balance sheets at the end of the fiscal year through the use of round-trip loans (Compl ). Despite apprehending the scope of the fraud, EY continued the Refco engagement. (Compl ) DISCUSSION Under New York law, the elements of aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting a conversion, and aiding and abetting a fraud are substantially similar. The claims require the existence of a primary violation, actual knowledge of the violation on the part 11 of the aider and abettor, and substantial assistance. The Professional Defendants allege that the Trustee s claims for aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, and fraud all fail 11 See, e.g., Design Strategy, Inc. v. Davis, 469 F.3d 284, 303 (2d Cir. 2006) (aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty); Lesavoy v. Lane, 304 F. Supp. 2d 520, 526 (S.D.N.Y. 2004), aff d in part, vacated on other grounds in part, 170 Fed. Appx. 721 (2d Cir. 2006) (aiding and abetting conversion); JP Morgan Chase Bank v. Winnick, 406 F. Supp. 2d 247, 252 (S.D.N.Y. 2005) (aiding and abetting fraud). 11

12 both because the Trustee has failed to state a claim for relief under any of the underlying causes of action, and because the Professional Defendants had no actual knowledge of, nor did they substantially assist, the underlying violation. All of the Trustee s claims will be dismissed for failure to state an underlying violation, and for failure to allege facts sufficient to demonstrate 12 that the Professional Defendants aided and abetted such violations. I. Standard of Review A defendant must meet a stringent standard in order to obtain dismissal for failure to state a claim. The issue is not whether a plaintiff will ultimately prevail but whether the claimant is entitled to offer evidence to support the claims. Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236 (1974), abrogated on other grounds, Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 815 (1982); accord, e.g., Triestman v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons, 470 F.3d 471, 476 (2d Cir. 2006). 12 The Professional Defendants also argue that plaintiff s claims are preempted by the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 ( SLUSA ), 15 U.S.C. 77p(b)(1), and that the Trustee s claims on behalf of the FX customers should be dismissed because the customers claims are derivative of those brought by RCM and therefore only RCM s bankruptcy estate may pursue them. Although the Court need not reach these arguments because the Trustee has failed to state a claim on other grounds, neither has merit. The FX customers are pursuing state-law claims against third-parties for the injury they suffered when Refco insiders stole from their FX accounts. This is a simple claim, for which the FX customers clearly have standing and which does not plausibly coincide with the purchase or sale of a covered security. See 15 U.S.C. 77p(b); Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. v. Dabit, 547 U.S. 71, 84 (2006); LaSala v. Bank of Cyprus Public Co. Ltd., 510 F. Supp. 2d 246, 273 (S.D.N.Y. 2007) ( Where the alleged conduct giving rise to the claim is too far removed from a securities transaction, the in connection with requirement is not met. ). In any event, to the extent that the Professional Defendants object to the customers standing on the grounds that a double recovery is possible, such concerns have been made moot by this Court s recent decision in Kirschner v. Grant Thornton LLP, which found that the Trustee, standing in the shoes of the bankruptcy estate, could not pursue aiders and abettors because a debtor has no standing to sue to recover for a wrong in which he took part. See 2009 WL , at *1 (dismissing under the Wagoner rule the claims brought by the Trustee in his capacity as Trustee of the Refco Litigation Trust). 12

13 Nonetheless, [t]o survive a motion to dismiss a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S.,, 129 S. Ct. 1937, 1949 (2009), quoting Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007). After the Supreme Court s recent decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, this plausibility standard, is guided by [t]wo working principles. Id. First, although a court must accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint, that tenet is inapplicable to legal conclusions and [t]hreadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice. Second, only a complaint that states a plausible claim for relief survives a motion to dismiss and [d]etermining whether a complaint states a plausible claim for relief will... be a context-specific task that requires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial experience and common sense. Harris v. Mills, F.3d, No. 07 Civ. 2283, 2009 WL , at *4 (2d Cir. July 9, 2009) (alterations and omissions in original), quoting Iqbal, 129 S. Ct. at If plaintiffs have not nudged their claims across the line from conceivable to plausible, their complaint must be dismissed. Twombly, 550 U.S. at 547. Averments of fraud, however, must be stated with particularity. Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b). Where the fraud is based on alleged misrepresentations, the complaint must specify the statements it claims were false or misleading, give particulars as to the respect in which plaintiff contends the statements were fraudulent, state when and where the statements were made, and identify those responsible for the statements. Suez Equity Investors, L.P. v. Toronto-Dominion Bank, 250 F.3d 87, 95 (2d Cir. 2001), quoting Cosmas v. Hassett, 886 F.2d 8, 11 (2d Cir. 1989). II. Breach of Fiduciary Duty A fiduciary duty arises when one [person] is under a duty to act for or to give advice for the benefit of another upon matters within the scope of the relation. Flickinger v. Harold C. 13

14 Brown & Co., 947 F.2d 595, 599 (2d Cir. 1991) (citations and internal quotations omitted) (alteration in original) (emphasis added). In a broker-customer relationship, the scope of the fiduciary obligation... is limited to affairs entrusted to the broker. Bissell v. Merrill Lynch & Co., 937 F. Supp. 237, 246 (S.D.N.Y. 1996); see also Indep. Order of Foresters v. Donald, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc., 157 F.3d 933, 940 (2d Cir. 1998) (applying New York law). While a broker may owe a fiduciary duty where he has discretionary trading authority over a customer s account, see id., here, all that the Trustee alleges was entrusted to RCM was the execution of foreign currency transactions upon receiving explicit customer instructions. (Compl. 9, 22, 28.) Here, the customer agreement governing the relationship between RCM and the FX customers (the FX Agreement ) explicitly states that every FX customer entered into each transaction independent of any advice or judgment offered by RCM and that RCM was not acting as a fiduciary or an advisor to the customer. (Rand Decl. Ex ) These are the hallmarks of a non-discretionary account. See de Kwiatkowski v. Bear, Stearns & Co., 306 F.3d 1293, 1302 (2d Cir. 2002) (defining a nondiscretionary account as one in which the customer by definition keeps control over the account and has full responsibility for trading decisions ). As the Second Circuit has made clear, under these circumstances a broker has narrowly defined duties that begin and end with each transaction. We are aware of no authority for the view that, in the ordinary case, a broker may be held to an open-ended duty of reasonable care, to a nondiscretionary client, that would encompass anything more than limited transaction-by-transaction duties. 14

15 Id. at 1306; see also In re Refco Capital Markets, Ltd. Brokerage Customer Sec. Litig. ( RCM II ), 586 F. Supp. 2d 172, (S.D.N.Y. 2008) (discussing United States v. Finnerty, F.3d 143 (2d Cir. 2008)). The fact that RCM, under the so-called Margin Annex (Rand Decl. Ex. 1 at 24), could loan, pledge, hypothecate or otherwise use or dispose of [all of a customer s] cash, securities, and other property free from any claim or right, until settlement in full of all [outstanding margin loans], id. (emphasis added), does not make a customer s account discretionary so as to give rise to a fiduciary duty. As the use or dispose language suggests, any action RCM took pursuant to assets treated as margin under the agreement was in RCM s own interest, and not 14 undertaken for the benefit of the customer. Accordingly, a fiduciary duty does not arise upon RCM s use of a customer s margin because the broker s use is not a situation in which the broker act[s] for or... give[s] advice for the benefit of another within the scope of the relation. Levitin v. PaineWebber, Inc., 159 F.3d 698, 700 (2d Cir. 1998) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted); Bissell, 937 F. Supp. at 246 (finding that a broker-dealer has no fiduciary obligations to its customers in connection with its use of a customer s collateral); see also RCM II, 586 F. Supp. 2d at (examining identical language in the RCM customers agreement and finding, citing Levitin and Bissell, that to the extent that RCM used plaintiffs 13 The Trustee argues that Judge Drain in the bankruptcy proceedings found that RCM owed a fiduciary duty to RCM customers in the course of ruling that the customers entrusted their assets to RCM. The Court has previously rejected the argument that Judge Drain s discussion found a fiduciary duty. See RCM II, 586 F. Supp. 2d at 193, n When an FX customer is actively trading, the margin deposited with RCM under the Margin Annex functions as security for the broker against swings in the value of currencies. (Compl. 23.) When an FX customer is not engaged in trading, the relevant cash belongs entirely to the customer and remains in the customer s account for use in future FX transactions. (Compl. 24.) 15

16 assets when plaintiffs had outstanding margin loans, such conduct created only a creditor-debtor 15 relationship, not a fiduciary one. ) (emphasis added). But the Trustee does not allege that the customers injury emerged either from RCM s execution of any customer-directed transactions or by RCM s use of customer assets outside the 16 Margin Annex umbrella. Indeed, the Trustee, consistent with the broad allegations of his complaint, specifically asserts that his claims do not rise or fall on any such distinctions. (Pl. Opp. at 20.) Rather, he contends that RCM owed the FX customers a fiduciary duty, notwithstanding either the terms of the FX Agreement or at precisely what point assets were siphoned from the FX customers accounts, because any use of customer assets by the broker must be consistent with a fiduciary duty to avoid waste and theft. (Id.) This argument, even if 15 The Trustee s argument that these cases are inapposite because the duty rejected in Bissell and Levitin is a different duty than the one at issue here (Pl. Opp. at 21-22), is without merit. If a broker does not owe a fiduciary duty to a customer when he uses a customer s assets, then the broker does not owe a fiduciary duty to the customer whether he uses the assets wisely or uses them poorly. It is an implausible interpretation of well-settled precedent to argue that only brokers who make bad decisions with a customer s assets owe a fiduciary duty. 16 Nor does he allege that RCM owed the FX customers a duty based on transformative special circumstances, such as the customers incapacity or simplicity. de Kwiatkowski, 306 F.3d at (citing cases). There is no indication in the complaint that the plaintiffs had impaired faculties[,] a closer than arms-length relationship with [RCM,] or that they are so lacking in sophistication that de facto control of the [assets were] deemed to rest in [RCM]. Id. at To the extent that the Trustee relies on the totality of facts and circumstances surrounding the creation and maintenance of the relationship between FX customers and RCM (Compl. 28), none support a fiduciary relationship. Neither the mailing of account statements, nor the presence of a dedicated salesperson demonstrate the provision of extraordinary brokerdealer services or distinguish the FX customers relationship with RCM from a standard brokercustomer relationship. (Id.) Further, to the extent that RCM represented that it was an unregulated offshore brokerage, that fact would appear to put customer on notice that the accounts would be managed in unconventional ways a heightened risk that, if anything, appears to undermine the presence of, not establish, a fiduciary duty. RCM I, 2007 WL , at *9. 16

17 17 it were not in tension with this Court s decision in RCM II, is unpersuasive, because the Trustee s theory of waste, as pleaded, is overbroad it contemplates that the broker s use of the customers assets is contrary to what customers reasonably expected, without pleading any facts that identify whether the source of that expectation is within the scope of the relation. Flickinger, 947 F.2d at 599. This deficiency distinguishes the circumstances here from those in United States v. Szur, 289 F.3d 200, 211 (2d Cir. 2002), where the Second Circuit found that the brokers had a fiduciary duty to disclose their allegedly exorbitant commissions because that information [was] relevant to the affairs... entrusted to [the broker]. Id. at 211 (citation and original alterations omitted). Szur is unavailing here because the Trustee s argument is deliberately indifferent as to whether a particular use is within the scope of a special relation. Instead, the Trustee contends that any use of customer assets by the broker must be consistent with a fiduciary duty to avoid waste and theft. (Pl. Opp. at 20.) As to this proposition, however, the Trustee cites no relevant precedent, perhaps because, as cases like Szur demonstrate, the fiduciary duty is limited by the broker s exercise of discretion on behalf of the customer, not by whether there is a colorable argument that the broker is a crook. The Trustee s focus on waste is therefore unpersuasive for the simple reason that a duty must be owed before that duty can be 17 In that action brought by similarly-situated RCM customer-plaintiffs with nondiscretionary accounts the Court found RCM owed no fiduciary duty because the allegations in the complaints [were] insufficient to establish that RCM used plaintiffs securities when they did not have outstanding margin loans... [and] to the extent that RCM used plaintiffs assets when plaintiffs had outstanding margin loans, such conduct created only a creditor-debtor relationship, not a fiduciary one. RCM II, 586 F. Supp. 2d at (emphasis added) (finding that a fiduciary relationship does not attach to the use of customer funds that was both authorized and unconditional). 17

18 18 breached. See In re Refco Capital Markets, Ltd. Brokerage Customer Sec. Litig. ( RCM I ), No. 06 Civ. 643, 2007 WL , at *9 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 13, 2007) (finding that only [i]f RCM had the discretion to trade in customer assets [would] the central issue... [be] whether the loans were bad investments that violated a fiduciary duty ). In sum, the no-waste obligations the Trustee seeks to impose on RCM do not arise from affairs entrusted to the broker as a fiduciary. The complaint simply does not allege facts indicating that [RCM s] actions were designed to instill a special relationship. See Bauer v. Mellon Mortgage Co., 680 N.Y.S.2d 397, (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1998) (granting a motion to dismiss); see also Tevdorachvili v. Chase Manhattan Bank, 103 F. Supp. 2d 632, 640 (E.D.N.Y. 2000) (dismissing plaintiff s claim for breach of fiduciary duty because he has failed to allege any factual circumstance about his relationship with [the broker] that might support such a 19 claim ). Accordingly, because there is no underlying fiduciary duty, the Professional Defendants could not have aided and abetted the breach of such a relationship. The Trustee s fifth claim against the Professional Defendants is therefore dismissed. III. Fraud Under New York law, [t]o state a cause of action for fraud, a plaintiff must allege a representation of material fact, the falsity of the representation, knowledge by the party making 18 Accordingly, even if there were merit to the Trustee s argument that a when using, don t waste duty turns on the intensely factual question of whether the use was wasteful, this argument does not prevent the Court from determining the preliminary question of whether a fiduciary duty exists. 19 The Trustee alleges that RCM was insolvent or in the zone of insolvency at all relevant times (Compl. 28(g)), but presents no argument that this insolvency establishes a fiduciary relationship. In any event, as the Professional Defendants point out, the complaint fails to allege facts in support of the allegation and thus such an approach would not survive a motion to dismiss. 18

19 the representation that it was false when made, justifiable reliance by the plaintiff and resulting injury. Lerner v. Fleet Bank, N.A., 459 F.3d 273, 291 (2d Cir. 2006), quoting Kaufman v. Cohen, 307 A.D.2d 113, 119 (1st Dep t 2003). Where, as here, RCM did not owe the FX customers a fiduciary duty, the Trustee must allege that RCM made affirmative misrepresentations which provided the customers with a false understanding of how RCM handled the assets in their accounts. See Progressive Cas. Ins. Co. v. C.A. Reaseguradora Nacional De Venezuala, 991 F.2d 42, 47 (2d Cir. 1993) (explaining that proof of fraud requires either an affirmative misrepresentation of a material fact, or an omission of a material fact coupled with a duty of disclosure). Although the Trustee concedes that the thrust of his allegations of fraud involve material omissions (Pl. Opp. at 26), the Trustee also makes two allegations of affirmative misrepresentation. He argues that the FX Agreement affirmatively misrepresented how the FX customers relationship with RCM would be governed, and that the account statements provided to FX customers misrepresented the positive equity held in each customer s account. (Pl. Opp. at 28-29; Compl. 28.) The Professional Defendants argue that the Trustee s fraud claims must be dismissed for failure to allege with specificity the material misstatements on which his claims are based. They are correct. The Court has already rejected, in a discussion of some length and on substantially similar allegations, the arguments put forward by the Trustee. In In re Capital Markets, the securities customers of RCM relied on nearly identical customer agreements and account statements in support of their claim that RCM engaged in deceptive conduct under federal securities laws. The Court, after allowing the customers to replead, found that the customers had fail[ed] to establish that RCM actually used [their] securities in a manner that violated the parties understanding under the [agreement], RCM II, 586 F. Supp. 2d at 186, and that the 19

20 account statements correctly listed plaintiffs non-collateral securities as credits that RCM had to repay upon demand, even if RCM had, in fact, already physically dispose[d] of the particular securities that had been deposited with it, id. at 188 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted) (alteration in original). The Trustee s argument, which is based on a complaint that pre-dates both RCM I and 20 RCM II, renews the basic contours of this now-rejected approach. The crux of the Trustee s claim with respect to the FX Agreement is that the Margin Annex limited what RCM could do with the collateral customers had posted. The provision with which the Trustee takes issue provides that RCM only had the right to loan, pledge, hypothecate or otherwise dispose of such cash, securities and other property free from any claim or right, until settlement in full of all 21 Transactions entered into pursuant to the [FX] Agreement. (Rand Decl. Ex. 1 at 24.) The Trustee looks to this language, however, not to allege that RCM, in fact, hypothecated customers assets at times other than those permitted by the Agreement indeed the Trustee appears to concede that some use by RCM under the circumstances was perfectly acceptable, see RCM II, 586 F. Supp. 2d at 185 but rather to contend that the phrase until settlement in full conveyed the false impression that the customers assets would be returned, when, in fact, given 20 Unlike the securities customers in In re Capital Markets, see RCM II, 586 F. Supp. 2d 172, 181 n.12, who abandoned the argument that uncollectibility is... [an] element of the pleaded fraud upon repleading, the Trustee argues that the purported loans that RCM made to its affiliates with the proceeds of the misappropriated securities were uncollectible, or in great danger of being uncollectible. (Pl. Opp. at 48; Compl. 70.) 21 There are other allegations in the Complaint, including that the Offering Circular that was distributed as part of the 2004 LBO represented, falsely, that the LBO debt would be junior to other subsidiary liabilities (Compl ), but the complaint does not allege who created and disseminated the document, or any facts that would connect the document to the FX customers. 20

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